It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
Nope, not the holiday season – the 2025 CandE Benchmark Research Reports are on their way. The first of two research briefs is now available – What Sets CandE Award Winners Apart – CandE Winners being those employers that had near-to-above average candidate experience ratings and our final CandE Score. The other brief and the main global report will be ready in January 2026.
You’ve already had many sneak peeks of this year’s research in many of the articles I’ve written in the past few months. Below is another sneak peek highlighting just some of the final insights from this year’s CandE research.
After completing all the participating employer data reviews from this year, there were clear positive and negative themes from all the candidate comments we analyzed.
Two of the positive comment themes included:
1. Professionalism and Support from Recruitment Staff:
◦ Candidates consistently praised recruiters, interviewers, and HR staff for exhibiting professionalism, friendliness, courtesy, helpfulness, and genuine engagement throughout the hiring process. This “human touch” is often cited as a key positive differentiator. This has always been a key differentiating factor each year.
2. Efficient, Clear, and Smooth Application/Interview Process:
◦ Many applicants described the overall application, screening, or initial interview stages as user-friendly, straightforward, quick, well-organized, or seamlessly managed. Candidates valued prompt responses and clear communication regarding next steps early in the process. Again, clear and consistent communications are also a key differentiating factor each year.
Two of the negative comment themes included:
1. Lack of Communication, Ghosting, and No Follow-Up:
◦ This is the most dominant negative theme, referring to the complete absence of status updates, lack of response after applications or interviews, and failure to provide promised follow-up, leaving candidates perpetually “in limbo”. This has also been an increasingly dominant theme since the pandemic.
2. AI/Automated Screening Issues and Impersonal Rejections:
◦ Candidates frequently complained that their resumes were auto-rejected or instantly filtered by Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) or AI based solely on keywords, resulting in the perception that no human reviewed their qualifications (often cited as “impersonal” or “broken”). Not surprising considering the candidate and employer escalation we saw in 2025.
Based on all the participating employers this year and the positive recruiting and hiring they engaged in, there were clear processes and activities we recommended they continue.
Two of the key process and activity recommendations to continue:
1. Sustain High Recruiter Professionalism and Accountability:
◦ Formalize the practices of maintaining professional, responsive, and empathetic staff interactions, often through ongoing training and aligning recruiter performance metrics (NPS, satisfaction scores) with positive candidate outcomes. This was an important differentiator in 2025 in what has been one of the worst candidate markets in recent memory.
2. Maintain Structured and Fair Interview Processes:
◦ Continue leveraging structured interview techniques with consistent questions and standardized scoring across all job types to reduce bias, improve selection quality, and ensure high perceived fairness. Structured interviews are also an important differentiator in any market.
Two of the key process and activity recommendations to make improvements:
1. Implement Timely Disposition and Eliminate Communication Gaps/Ghosting:
◦ Mandate a strict disposition timeline (e.g., 3–5 business days) for all candidates (rejected or advancing). Implement automated yet personalized rejection notifications (using mail-merge fields) and follow-up communications to provide definitive closure and eliminate prolonged silence (“ghosting”). This is another important differentiator we recommend every year based on how more CandE Winners disposition candidates compared to all other employers.
2. Address AI/Automated Screening Misperception and Enhance Transparency:
◦ Review and optimize automated screening tools to prevent the unjust rejection of qualified candidates. Communicate explicitly (on career sites and in communications) how AI is used, and incorporate human review checkpoints for high-value or highly qualified candidates to mitigate the perception that “bots are making the final decision”. Whether it makes a difference or not, the AI train has left the station and it’s never coming back. It’s always best to be as transparent as possible (or as you’re comfortable with) with your candidates, external and internal.
So, there you go. A little CandE insight for your holiday stockings until all the 2025 CandE Benchmark Research Reports are available.
Happy Holidays!
